Mattie Parker, the 41-year-old Republican mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, is in an enviable position among American mayors: Hers is the fastest-growing city in the country. What once was a small, quiet city of 500,000 is now at 1 million residents and growing, the result of a deliberate and successful effort to attract new families — while still maintaining the warm small-town character that longtime residents recognize.
Parker, who just won a second term with 70 percent of the vote, is a superstar example of the idea that America has three major parties: Democratic, Republican and mayors. She is not afraid to push back against either Democratic or Republican state policies that are bad for families. Ultimately, whether it’s public safety — “We should all be pro-police and pro-community at the same time.” — education, job growth, infrastructure or health insurance, Parker has one guiding principle that steers her agenda: common sense.
“I’m so sick of what I’m seeing nationally and statewide,” Parker tells former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, in the latest episode of The Citizen’s How to Really Run a City podcast. “I don’t care. I don’t need this job. I have no aspiration. I want to live in Fort Worth and raise my family. If it costs me my job to be common sense, great. But I think it will reward our city by keeping us on the right track.”
Check out the episode featuring Mayor Mattie Parker here or below. As always, let us know what you think — and who you’d like to hear on future episodes of the podcast — at podcast@thephiladelphiacitizen.org.
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